Jaroslav Pelikan's the Christian Tradition - Pelikan's magnum opus on the story of the development of the Christian Church and Christian thought from the time of the Apostles downwards.

Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars - A revealing and masterful exposition of the suppression of the Catholic faith in England under the regime of Henry VIII and his successors where centuries of faith was wiped out and made illegal. Dispels a lot of myths of the state of Catholicism in the middle ages and reminds me of the suppression of the Eastern Catholic Churches in the former Soviet Union. This book also gave me a background to imagine the atmosphere of England in Evelyn Waugh's biography of St. Edmund Campion .

Three works of fiction everyone should read:

The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien's masterpiece which needs no introduction. This book was voted the best literary work in the English language this century. I'd recommend it's prequels, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion as well. Great stuff which I find myself coming back to again and again.

A Song of Ice and Fire - George RR Martin's epic, which, although it current remains unfinished, has all the markings of a truly great tale which I find myself reading and re-reading in an attempt to keep track of the complex plots and characters as I wait for the fifth instalment to come out. It's kinda like waiting for the motu proprio, You know it's there and you know it has to come out some time but just where the heck is it?Sir Nigel - Most of us know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the creator of that most logical and astute of detectives, Sherlock Holmes. But Doyle also wrote historical fiction and this book, which recounts the childhood and youth of Sir Nigel, the Commander of the White Company is truly a masterpiece, capturing beautifully the atmosphere, glory, chivalry and utter illogic of the high middle ages. A true 'underdog done good' tale to thrill children of all ages. With pirates and knights and kings and princes, what more can a man want? I've linked the text from Project Gutenberg as it has no American copyright.